(late) July Photo Round-up

I think it would be fair to call it an unusually cool summer out there so far. Thick, wet fog this morning. The garden, as a result, is a little more bloom-y, a little less crisp-y than it sometimes is in late July. And over the past week or two, the next round of flower types have been coming along: sunflowers, dahlias, lilies, yarrow, and a fresh round of roses-- all going on now.

this year's Lavender Fields

Here are a few pics from this year's visit to the fields at Matanzas Creek Winery.

The plants are at the peak of bloom, beginning to be harvested, as seen as cropped green mounds in some photos.

Alive with bees!

The dragonfly was over by the water garden area-- all the plantings are lovely, not just the lavender!
Previous years' photos seen here and here.

There will be a pomegranate!

We planted this pomegranate bush... 4 or 5 years ago, and now, after years of blossoms which simply fell off, at least one is starting to form a fruit! We are unreasonably happy.

Community Garden Update.

Two posts back, but almost 2 months ago-- you can see photos from the ground-breaking of our little town's Community Garden.
Now, here's a photo of one recent days harvest of squash-- plus some scenes as the sun set this evening at the first potluck to be held at the site.

spherical flowers

Yup, seem to be a fan recently of globe-shaped flowers. On a recent driving trip we came across this field of 'em-- onion plants? when we hit the Central Valley near Williams.

The final photo, the blue thistle-like flower is in our yard--- echinops family.